1502 May 9, Christopher
Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the
Western Hemisphere. He explored Central America, and discovered St.
Lucia, the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Columbus
left 52 Jewish families in Costa Rica. [see May 11]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(AP, 5/9/97)(WSJ, 6/15/00,
p.A1)

1753 May 9, King Louis XV
disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1754 May 9, The first American
newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration in Benjamin
Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections,
each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join
or die."
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)

1846 May 9, US forced Mexico
back to Rio Grande in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1846 May 9, Gen. Mariano Arista
crossed the Rio Grande and killed a number of US soldiers in a
surprise attack. Mexico believed that France and Britain would
support it in a war against the US.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)

1859 May 9, Threatened by the
advancing French army, the Austrian army retreated across the River
Sesia in Italy.
(HN, 5/9/00)

1861 May 9, The Banshee, a
British ship designed to run the American blockade on Confederate
ports, departed Nassau for Wilmington, NC, on the first of many
successful runs directed by Thomas E. Taylor, a shipping clerk for
the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company.
(ON, 8/09, p.11)

1864 May 9, Union General John
Sedgwick was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter during
fighting at Spotsylvania, Va. His last words before getting hit were
"From this distance they couldn't hit an elephant."
(AH, 2/03, p.35)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton,
GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Battle of Cloyd's
Mt. and Swift Creek, VA (Drewry’s Bluff, Ft. Darling).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark
held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1865 May 9, William Smith
(1797-1887) was forced out of office as governor of Virginia
following the Confederate surrender.
(http://tinyurl.com/lnq3flb)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.28)
1865 May 9, August de Boeck
(d.1937), Flemish composer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_de_Boeck)

1885 May 9, In the Battle of
Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and
resorted to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced
to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)

1896 May 9, The 1st horseless
carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1909 May 9, In San Francisco
135 delegates of the anti-Japanese Laundry League took steps at a
convention at Golden Gate Hall, 222 Van Ness Ave., to boycott all
Japanese enterprises on the Pacific Coast.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)

1913 May 9, The 17th amendment
to the Constitution, providing for the election of US senators by
popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was
ratified. [see May 31]
(AP, 5/9/01)

1915 May 9, German and French
forces fought the Battle of Artois.
(HN, 5/9/98)

1916 May 9, The
Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the
governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres
of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was
signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. Britain
and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies,
mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French
imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were
put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the
Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at
age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal. As of 2016 the boundaries
of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria
and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ,
2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.5)

1919 May 9, Arthur English,
comedian, actor (Malachi's Cove), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, James Reese Europe
(b.1881), jazz band leader and founder of the NYC Clef Club, died
after he was stabbed during the intermission of a performance at
Mechanic’s Hall in Boston. Europe led the Clef Club Symphony
Orchestra before WW I and during the war led a US Army band in the
all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the French
Army. In 1995 Reid Badger authored “A Life in Ragtime," a biography
of Europe.
(WSJ, 11/10/05,
p.D7)(www.jass.com/Others/europe.html)

1921 May 9, The play "Sei
Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" (Six Characters in Search of an
Author) by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) premiered in Rome.
(http://tinyurl.com/qs2xg8)

1925 May 9, Cornerstone for
Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem
in part by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)

1926 May 9, Americans Richard
Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole.
[see 1888-1957, Byrd] Two teams of aviators competed to be the first
to fly over the North Pole. American Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd
and pilot Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they circled the North
Pole. But even today experts suspect that faulty navigation caused
Byrd to miss the North Pole. Later archivists determined that Byrd
was probably 150 miles short of the pole. His tri-motor Fokker
monoplane named Josephine Ford probably came within 2.25 degrees of
the pole.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1926)(SFC, 5/9/96,
p.A-13)(HN, 5/9/98)(HNPD, 5/13/99)
1926 May 9, In San Francisco a
bomb exploded in front of the main entrance of Sts. Peter and Paul’s
Catholic Church.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.C1)
1926 May 9, Joseph Malaby Dent
(b.1849), British bookbinder turned publisher, died. He began
Everyman’s Library in 1906, a collection of low cost classic books.
Random House and Knopf debuted a revived line in 1991.
(WSJ, 1/9/07,
p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)

1932 May 9, Piccadilly Circus
was lit by electricity.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1933 May 9, Spanish anarchists
called for a general strike.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1934 May 9, Alan Bennett,
playwright, actor (Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Beyond the
Fringe), was born in England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco
waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association
(ILA), headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down
seaports in Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union
workers went on strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace
the company operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike
breakers were housed in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock
workers. In 1996 David F. Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The
1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC,
8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)

1936 May 9, Albert Finney,
actor, was born in Salford, UK. He starred in "Murder on the Orient
Express" and "Tom Jones."
(HN, 5/9/99)(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Glenda Jackson,
actress (Women in Love), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took
Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in
Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)

1941 May 9, The German
submarine U-110 was captured at sea by the Royal Navy, revealing
considerable Enigma material. Enigma was the German machine used to
encrypt messages during World War II.
(HN, 5/9/99)(HNQ, 8/30/00)

1942 May 9, John Ashcroft,
later Missouri governor (1984-1992) senator (1995-2000) and US
Attorney Gen’l (2001-2004), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(USAT, 11/5/04, p.4A)

1943 May 9, The 5th German
Panzer army surrendered in Tunisia.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1945 May 9, U.S. officials
announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted
immediately.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was
liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Jersey was
liberated from Nazis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi
collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Soviet citizens
celebrated their WW II victory in Europe at Red Square. This became
an annual holiday to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who
died in the war.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.45)

1946 May 9, Italy’s King Victor
Emmanuel III, known as "sciaboletta", or small sabre, due to his
stature, abdicated the throne in favor of his son Umberto II in a
vain effort to avert a plebiscite to decide whether Italy should
remain a monarchy or become a republic. Umberto II (d.1983) ruled
for just 26 days before he was sent into exile after a June
referendum abolished the monarchy. After the referendum Victor
Emmanuel III went into exile in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died the
following year.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)(SFC,
1/30/01, p.C2)(Reuters, 12/17/17)

1950 May 9, Sam Walton opened a
small “Five and Dime" store in Bentonville, Ark. In 1962 he started
his Wal-Mart discount chain. [see 1945]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Walton)
1950 May 9, French foreign
minister Robert Schuman proposed to place French and German
production of coal and steel under one common High Authority. This
organization would be open to participation of Western European
countries. His statement became known as the Schuman declaration.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration)(Econ, 12/10/16,
p.74)

1951 May 9, The U.S. Far East
Air Force launched a strike on Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Yalu
River.
(HN, 5/9/99)

1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo"
with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by
Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo"
premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)

1959 May 9, In San Francisco
four men poured gasoline on the deck of the Rotting Fort Sutter
riverboat hulk and ignited it at Aquatic Cove. The men were said to
be members of the South End swimming club.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.C2)

1960 May 9, The US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill Enovid as safe for birth
control use. The pill was made by G.D. Searle and Company of
Chicago. It was commissioned by Margaret Sanger and funded by
heiress Katharine McCormick. In 2001 Carl Djerassi authored "This
Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill." Djerassi
synthesized a key hormone in the pill in Mexico City in 1951.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R6)(AP, 5/9/00)
1960 May 9, US sent a U-2 over
USSR.
(MC, 5/9/02)

1961 May 9, In a speech to the
National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications
Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming
as a "vast wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)

1962 May 9, A laser beam was
successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
(HN, 5/9/99)

1967 May 9, Marine Sgt. James
Neil Tycz (22) and three other US servicemen were killed on Hill 665
near Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border. In 2005 three of
the men were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 38th
anniversary of their deaths.
(AP, 5/8/05)

1970 May 9, Walter Reuther
(1907-1970) died in a plane crash. He was a die maker who pioneered
the establishment of the United Automobile Workers union and served
as the UAW president from 1946 for 24 years.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv.
Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reuther)

1971 May 9, In the 23rd Emmy
Awards: Jack Klugman won for his role in “The Odd Couple" & Jean
Stapleton won for her role in “All in the Family."
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1971)
1971 May 9, Friends of Earth
returned 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes. Friends of Earth
became an international network this year with a meeting of
representatives from the US, Sweden, the UK and France.
(http://tinyurl.com/6yqzul)(http://tinyurl.com/5zmwfa)

1974 May 9, The House Judiciary
Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of
President Nixon.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)

1976 May 9, Harvey Fite,
professor of art at Bard College, died in Saugerties, NY, while
working on his multi-acre Opus 40 landscape sculpture. In 2010 the
37-year project was listed for sale for $3.5 million.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A4)
1976 May 9, Ulrike Meinhof
(b.1934), co-leader of the Baader-Meinhof gang, committed suicide in
German prison.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/3/09,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof)

1977 May 9, Pink Floyd opened a
2-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum.
(http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/pink-floyd-concert/2923-5541.html)
1977 May 9, James Jones
(b.1921), US writer (From Here to Eternity), died. His work included
the pre-WW II novel "From Here to Eternity." His daughter later
wrote the novel "A Soldier’s Daughter never Cries," which was made
into a film with Kris Kristofferson as James Jones.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm)(SFEC, 7/12/98,
Par p.17)

1978 May 9, "Ain't Misbehavin'"
opened at Longacre Theater NYC for 1604 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_Misbehavin')
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled
body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red
Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of
Rome. In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern
Corsica for his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)

1980 May 9, In Florida 35
motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the
Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. The freighter MV Summit
Venture collided with a pier (support column) during a blinding
thunderstorm, sending over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge plummeting
into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a
Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m) into the water.
(AP,
5/9/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)

1982 May 9, The musical "Nine,"
inspired by Federico Fellini's film "Eight and a-Half," opened on
Broadway.
(AP, 5/9/07)

1984 May 9, In San Francisco a
5-alarm fire engulfed the structures on Pier 30-32 along the
Embarcadero at the foot of Bryant Street. Damages were estimated at
$2.5 million.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)

1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius,
head of the French Socialist government, blocked the sale of an AIDS
virus detection test made by Abbott Laboratories. Fabius and others
were later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter in the
deaths of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood. In
1999 Fabius and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond
Herve, the health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence
in 2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)

1987 May 9, All 183 people
aboard a Polish jetliner were killed when the plane, bound for New
York, crashed and burned in Warsaw after the pilot attempted an
emergency return.
(AP, 5/9/97)

1988 May 9, Education Secretary
William J. Bennett announced he would leave his position in
mid-September.
(AP, 5/9/98)

1989 May 9, President Bush
complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive
irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General
Manuel Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1989 May 9, VP Quayle said in
United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's
mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste."
(www.realchange.org/quayle.htm)

1990 May 9, President Bush and
congressional leaders announced plans for emergency budget talks,
with tax increases and spending cuts on the negotiating table.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1990 May 9, A major cyclone
made landfall on Andhra Pradesh, India. It dissipated 2 days later
over central India. Strong flooding caused 510 human fatalities, but
the effect on agriculture was substantial. More than 100,000 animals
were killed,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990-1994_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_seasons)

1991 May 9, President Bush met
at the White House with UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de
Cuellar, who relayed Iraq’s rejection of a US-backed proposal for a
UN civilian force in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, William Kennedy
Smith was charged with rape, nearly six weeks after Patricia Bowman
accused him of attacking her at the Kennedy family estate in West
Palm Beach, Florida. He was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, Michael Landon
(d.7/1/1991) appeared on Tonight Show to talk about his cancer.
(www.sawilsons.com/highway_to_heaven.htm)

1992 May 9, Final episode of
"Golden Girls" aired on NBC-TV.
(www.tv.com/golden-girls/show/131/summary.html)
1992 May 9, President Bush,
back in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised
in a radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled
Congress on proposals to help American cities.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1992 May 9, The UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted.
(Econ, 12/5/15, p.76)

1993 May 9, The White House
said President Clinton had directed Secretary of State Warren M.
Christopher to contact U.S. allies to discuss how they could ensure
Serbia's promise to cut supplies to the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1993 May 9, Major flooding
began in the Mississippi Valley. 1700 square miles flooded in
Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Wisconsin. Total damage was later estimated at $20
billion.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A7)
1993 May 9, Paraguay held its
1st presidential and parliamentary elections in 50 years. A
democracy was established in Paraguay. Juan Carlos Wasmosy was
elected president.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A1)
1993 May 9, Pope John Paul II
made an anti-Mafia speech in Agrigento, Sicily.
(www.cbc.ca/news/obit/pope/timeline.html)
1993 May 9, Penelope Gilliatt
[Conner], British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104302)

1994 May 9, "Passion" opened at
Plymouth Theater in NYC for 280 performances.
(www.sjsondheim.com/passion.html)
1994 May 9, Comedian Bobcat
Goldthwait set fire to the couch on Tonight Show. A misdemeanor
charge soon followed and a fine of $3,888.
(www.courttv.com/news/flashback/May.html)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel
Rifkin was found guilty in NY. By January 1996, Rifkin was scheduled
to serve at least 183 years for seven slayings, with 10 counts
outstanding.
(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/rifkin/9.html)
1994 May 9, South Africa's
newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's
first black president. Mandela promised a South Africa for "all its
people, black and white."
(AP, 5/9/99)

1995 May 9, President Clinton
arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, The United States
returned 13 Cuban boat people to their homeland, the first to be
sent back under a new policy bitterly protested by Cuban-Americans.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital
of Zaire (later Congo), was placed under quarantine after an
outbreak of the Ebola virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)

1996 May 9, In dramatic video
testimony to a hushed courtroom in Little Rock, Ark., President
Clinton insisted he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan at the
heart of the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1996 May 9, In India the
Congress Party conceded to electoral losses.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In South Africa the
National Party withdrew from a national-unity government with Pres.
Mandela’s African National Congress.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In Germany the
parliament cleared the way for a high-speed, magnetically levitated
train system to link Berlin and Hamburg. The project is estimated to
cost $3.7 billion and is to be completed in 2005.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-6)
1996 May 9, Bacterial
meningitis had Infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over
the last 3 months and more than 10,000 died. The epidemic was most
intense in the region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)

1997 May 9, During a visit to a
rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to
sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1997 May 9, HUD announced a
suit against A. Bruce Rozet, a prominent SF property owner, for
kickbacks on inflated management fees. Rozet and partner Deane Earl
Ross had holdings that included 21,851 housing units that received
annual federal subsidies of $71.6 million.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)
1997 May 9, The California
state Environmental protection Agency issued a report that linked
lung cancer to diesel exhaust fumes.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A17)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant
burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical
Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was
heated and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden
rainwater from entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters
were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 9, Australian
scientists reported in the journal Radiation Research that prolonged
exposure of cellular phone radiation in the 900 megahertz range
increased the risk of lymphoma cancer in mice.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A1,11)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a
3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu
was identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 9, In Italy 8 Venetian
separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were
overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri
(b.1928), film director, died. His work included “The Wheelchair"
(El Cochecit 1960), “Le Lit Conjugal" (The Conjugal Bed 1963),
“Dillinger Is Dead" (1969), “La Grande Bouffe" (1973), “La Derniere
Femme" (1976), and “Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 9, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin approved a new security doctrine that stipulated that right
to use nuclear weapons if it was attacked.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A12)

1998 May 9, In Britain the
Israeli transsexual, Dana International (Yaron Cohen), won the
annual Eurovision Song Prize with the song “Diva.".
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)
1998 May 9, In France a bomb
exploded near the Spanish border at Saint-Pierre d’Irube and caused
damage to a bank branch and the City Hall. Basque militants were
suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 9, In Greece
Archbishop Christodoulos was enthroned in Athens as the new head of
the Greek Orthodox Church. A recent proposal to force the separation
of church and state in Greece was rejected the previous week.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A19)
1998 May 9, Indonesian
President Suharto left his troubled country for a summit in Egypt
with a warning his army would quell violence over his 32-year rule
and the worsening economy.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1998 May 9, The leading Group
of Eight industrialized countries imposed an investment ban on
Serbia and froze and froze the assets abroad of Serbia and
Montenegro due to conditions in Kosovo. The sanctions did not go
into effect because Serbia began talks with ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A1)

1999 May 9, On Oahu, Hawaii, a
landslide at Sacred Falls State Park killed 8 people and injured
dozens.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A5)
1999 May 9, In Louisiana a
chartered bus, bound for a Mother's Day gambling excursion, crashed
on I-610 in New Orleans and [22] 23 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP,
5/9/00)
1999 May 9, NATO struck
artillery and mortar positions along with armored vehicles and
Serbian troops in Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)
1999 May 9, China announced
that it was breaking off diplomatic contacts with Washington on
human rights and arms control along with contacts on weapons
proliferation and int'l. security due to the bombing of its embassy
in Belgrade. Furious Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris
into the U.S. Embassy in a second day of protests against NATO's
bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, In East Timor
violence in Dili between separatists and anti-independence militia
began and left 4 people dead over the next 2 days.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A12)

2000 May 9, Senator John McCain
endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush for president.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, Former four-term
Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted of extortion schemes
to manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos. Edwards was
sentenced in January, 2001, to ten years in prison and fined a
quarter of a million dollars.
(AP, 5/9/01)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire
at the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an
8-mile stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed
within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 9, It was reported
that 10% of the world’s 608 primate species and subspecies on 3
continents were critically imperiled.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, In the Philippines
Reomel Ramones, suspect in the “Love Bug" computer virus case, was
released due to lack of evidence. His girlfriend, Irene de Guzman,
failed to turn herself in as promised.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)

2001 May 9, Pres. Bush told
Pres. Kostunica of Yugoslavia that aid would depend on cooperation
with the Balkan war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, It was reported
that El Paso Merchant Energy had crimped space in its desert
pipeline and forced California power buyers to pay some $3.8 billion
in excess over the past year.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.A7)
2001 May 9, China sought U.S.
understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane
to fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the
aircraft flew again over Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Split, Croatia,
a soccer brawl left 130 people injured including 30 police.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
2001 May 9, In Ghana a stampede
at a soccer match in Accra killed 126 people. Police had use of tear
gas to quell fans which caused panic and the stampede.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)(AP,
5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Kashmir Islamic
guerrillas, members of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group,
set off explosives in a paramilitary camp in Magam and killed
themselves and 6 civilians.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2
Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were
stoned to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, Macedonian forces
intensified assaults on suspected ethnic Albanian positions.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 9, In Papua New Guinea
the Bougainville Provincial Peace Consultative committee adopted a
peace plan and opposing factions agreed to lay down their weapons.
The agreement entailed the PNG government’s accepting an Autonomous
Bougainville Government (ABG) and a referendum on independence to be
held between 2015-2020.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D8)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)(Econ,
4/8/17, p.34)
2001 May 9, In southern Sudan a
Red Cross plane was shot and its co-pilot, Dane Ole Friis Eriksen,
was killed. The plane managed to land in Kenya.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)

2002 May 9, Veteran Mexican
musician Juan Gabriel won four awards, including top songwriter, at
the Billboard Latin Music Awards held in Miami Beach, Florida.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2002 May 9, In Maryland Gov.
Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions. It was the
2nd state after Illinois to do so because of doubts over its
fairness.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A5)
2002 May 9, In Bahrain voters
cast ballots in elections for 50 municipal seats. Bahraini women
were allowed to vote and run for office for the 1st time, though
none were elected.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In India rioting
between Hindus and Muslims in Ahmadabad left 9 people dead.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In Liberia many
civilians were reported killed as rebels attacked Gbarnga, the
stronghold of Pres. Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A16)
2002 May 9, In Russia a
remote-controlled terrorist bomb killed 43 people including 13
children in Kaspiisk, Dagestan.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A1)(SFC,
5/11/02, p.A12)(AP, 5/9/03)

2003 May 9, The US and its
allies asked the UN Security Council to legitimize their occupation
of Iraq and sought permission to use revenue from the world's
second-largest oil reserves to rebuild the war-battered country.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The Republican-led
House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2003 May 9, The Fizzer computer
virus began circulating aided by its ability to propagate through
the Kazaa file sharing network.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D3)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of
rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead
School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and
wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was
later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP,
5/9/08)
2003 May 9, In Tyler, Texas,
Deanna LaJune Laney (38) bludgeoned to death her 2 sons Joshua (8)
and Luke (6). A toddler was in critical condition. In 2004 a jury
found Laney legally insane.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A6)(AP, 4/4/04)
2003 May 9, Russell Long
(b.1918), U.S. senator from Louisiana, died. He was 1st elected to
the senate in 1948 and served for over 32 years.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
2003 May 9, In northern Iraq 3
U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the
Tigris River.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a
rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact
with asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 9, Spain's highest
court barred nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists from running in
municipal elections, calling them camouflaged members of the
outlawed party Batasuna.
(AP, 5/9/03)

2004 May 9, Alan King,
comedian, died in NYC. King was born in Brooklyn as Irwin Alan
Kniberg. His books included “Is Salami and Eggs Better than Sex?"
(1985).
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A2)
2004 May 9, The Bangladesh
government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka
and nearby Tongi as a strike to protest the killing of Ahsanullah
Master, a member of the main opposition Awami League, brought the
country to a standstill.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Canada rallied to
beat Sweden for the second straight year in the gold-medal game at
the world hockey championships, 5-3.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of
fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a
remote village on the country's western border with Niger, killing
43 "terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida. Chad’s
defense minister said hundreds of Arab militiamen from Sudan had
raided a village inside Chad, setting off gun battles with the army
that killed dozens of fighters.
(AP, 3/12/04)(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, The Chinese
government warned that AIDS is continuing to spread and estimated
that there were some 840,000 carriers of the disease.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A3)
2004 May 9, Akhmad Kadyrov
(52), the Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya
region, was killed along with 23 others when an explosion tore
through a stadium in Grozny, during Victory Day observances marking
the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Russian Sergei Abramov was
named acting president.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A7)(AP,
5/9/05)
2004 May 9, U.S. and British
troops clashed with forces of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
for a second day. 4 Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad
market. Militants loyal to al-Sadr took over Sadr City.
(AP, 5/9/04)(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04,
p.A9)
2004 May 9, Polish police in
Lodz mistakenly opened fire with live ammunition to stop a street
fight, killing a 19-year-old man and wounding three others.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Brenda Fassie (39),
South Africa's first black pop star, who gave a voice to
disenfranchised blacks at the height of apartheid, died of
complications from an asthma attack.
(AP, 5/10/04)

2005 May 9, President Bush,
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac
and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th
anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish
military parade in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Actress Renee
Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney on the island of
St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The marriage was annulled just
months later.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Eight-year-old
Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias were found stabbed to
death in Zion, Ill.; Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs III, was later
charged with killing the girls.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, In Hingham, Mass.,
the bodies of two homeless men were found. They had likely been
killed the previous April. In 2007 Eric Snow (25) and James Winquist
(23) were accused of beating the 2 men to death with baseball bats.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina,
Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official
Orgasm Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In northern China
nearly a dozen homes built into hillside caves were buried when the
soil above them collapsed, trapping 24 people.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former
President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he
mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year
term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres.
Bush, before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said
that the former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world
that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from
oppressive rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Werner G. Seifert,
the long-serving chief executive of the German stock exchange, was
ousted by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a British hedge
fund. In 2006 Seifert authored his account of the affair: “Invasion
der Heuschrecken: Intrigen, Machkampfe, Marktmanipulation."
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.64)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece,
Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around
the world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious
challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and
African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Iran confirmed that
it has processed 37 tons of uranium into gas, a key step into the
using the material as a fuel for reactors or weapons.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon
told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will
be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on
July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops
killed 26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3
policemen and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, Palestinian
militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns
Monday, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack
down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid
footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, World leaders
joined Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish
military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied
victory over Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/9/05)

2006 May 9, The United States
bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new
program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the
Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Vermont Gov. Jim
Douglas signed a health reform package to provide health insurance
to as many as 25,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 9, Cory Anthony Booker
(b.1969) was elected the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The
Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community
activist had run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime
incumbent Sharpe James. Booker inherited a $44 million deficit from
James, who had boasted of a $30 million surplus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker)
2006 May 9, Gold futures closed
above $700 for the 1st time since 1980.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.C1)
2006 May 9, Tornadoes swept
through two North Texas towns after dark, reducing houses to bare
concrete slabs in a path of destruction that left three people dead
and 10 injured.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Victor Gonzalez,
former butcher, murdered his roofing foreman Wilfredo Pinto.
He then dismembered and bagged the body parts and scattered them on
NYC street corners. In 2009 Gonzalez was convicted of murder.
(SFC, 4/9/09,
p.A4)(www.mahalo.com/Victor_Gonzalez)
2006 May 9, Australia's
government unveiled a big-spending "boom budget" that will use a
projected 10 billion dollar (7.7 billion US) surplus to finance
across-the-board tax cuts and build up the military and national
security agencies.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Beaconsfield,
Australia, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from a mine more
than a half mile underground. A small earthquake on April 25 trapped
Webb and Russell in the 4-foot-tall safety cage they were working in
under tons of rock. Mourners gathered to bury, Larry Knight, who
died in the same rock collapse.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's
leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land
to the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of
Santa Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo
Morales.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995
Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide
trial since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed
five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove
it from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, The Canadian dollar
hit a 28-year high against the US dollar, as the greenback came
under broad selling pressure.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Authorities said
Chinese and US had agents seized more than 300 pounds of cocaine in
March smuggled from Colombia in the country's largest ever cocaine
bust. Nine people involved in a drug ring were arrested in southern
China.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Egypt Nasser
Khamis el-Mallahi, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group wanted
for last month's bombings in Dahab, was killed in a gunbattle in the
mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A German court
handed down a life sentence for murder to Armin Meiwes, the German
cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh,
overturning a previous manslaughter conviction.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Officials said Iran
will supply crude oil and equity investment to build an oil refinery
in Indonesia that will supply China and provide Iran with a secure
outlet in the face of possible sanctions.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A8)
2006 May 9, Iran's president
declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed
worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the
U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly
rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about
Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal
Afar, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35. In Suwayra police
recovered the corpses on 11 people, 9 of whom had been beheaded. In
Salahuddin province 3 Iraqi detainees were shot and killed by US
soldiers near Samarra. On June 19 the US military announced murder
charges against 4 US soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd
Brigade. The soldiers said they were under orders to kill all
military-age males on “Objective Murray." In 2007 Spec. Juston
Graber pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Jan 25, 2007, Pfc.
Corey Clagett (22) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering
a detainee and taking part in the killing of 2 others. In 2007 Staff
Sgt. Ray Girouard was found guilty on 3 counts of negligent
homicide. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 5/9/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/20/06,
p.A4)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/26/07,
p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/07, p.A3)(AFP, 3/20/07)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers
handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows
that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud
and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a
school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and
leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes
between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians,
including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories
could erupt in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions
said they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic
fighters and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 9, UN members elected
47 countries to a new Human Rights Council. Cuba, Saudi Arabia,
China and Russia won seats on the new UN Human Rights Council
despite their poor human rights records. Two rights abusers, Iran
and Venezuela, were defeated.
(AP, 5/10/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A17)

2007 May 9, The NY Times
reported on its Web site that Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson
are paying doctors hundreds of millions of dollars every year in
return for prescribing anemia drugs which regulators now say may be
unsafe at commonly used doses.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Alfred D. Chandler
Jr., American historian, died in Massachusetts. He helped establish
the field of business history. His books included “Strategy and
Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Revolution"
(1962).
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.91)
2007 May 9, Afghan civilians
fought with Taliban militants who hit a checkpoint near Sangin,
leaving three of the attackers dead. A suicide car bomber killed two
Afghans and wounded five when he detonated his car in the eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil
and Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on
suspected criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Britain’s Home
Office, once called "not fit for purpose" by the minister in charge
of it, was split into two in a bid to combat illegal immigration,
crime and terrorism more effectively. British police arrested four
people in connection with the suicide bombings that killed 52 bus
and subway passengers in London in 2005.
(AFP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Chad pledged to
work to demobilize hundreds of child soldiers fighting in the ranks
of the government army and rebel groups across the conflict-torn
central African country.
(Reuters, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, China ordered
strengthened controls over its food industry after a series of
health scares with international repercussions laid bare lax
standards. A Beijing court sentenced a man to life in prison for
taking nearly $500,000 in bribes while posing as a reporter, and
sometimes a top editor, for the Communist Party's official
newspaper, the People's Daily.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, East Timor voted
for a new president, choosing between a Nobel Prize winner and an
ex-freedom fighter in polls critical to maintaining peace a year
after the nation was pushed to the brink of civil war.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In the early hours
Internet traffic in Estonia spiked to thousands of times the normal
flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing Estonia’s biggest bank to
shut down its online service for more than an hour. Hansabank
continued under assault and worked to block access to 300 suspect
Internet addresses. On March 12, 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, an
activist with Russia's Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin
member of parliament, said he had organized a network of
sympathizers who bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic
requests, causing them to crash.
(www.lunchoverip.com/2007/05/estonia_under_c.html)(Reuters, 3/12/09)
2007 May 9, France’s interior
minister said violence hit for a third night following the election
of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, with about 200 vehicles torched by
vandals and more than 80 people taken in for questioning nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In France Nayef
al-Shaalan, a Saudi Prince, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in
jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Hundreds of German
police raided the offices and apartments of left-wing activists
suspected of planning to disrupt next month's Group of Eight summit,
leading security officials to tighten border controls ahead of the
gathering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, US VP Dick Cheney
and Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of
reducing violence in Iraq, but both pledged their governments would
continue working together toward a solution. A majority of Iraqi
lawmakers endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number
already in the country. A suicide truck bomb ripped through the
Interior Ministry headquarters in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing
at least 14 people and wounding dozens. Four Iraqi journalists were
killed in a drive-by shooting near the northern oil-rich city of
Kirkuk. Gunmen killed two members of the minority Yazidi religious
sect and wounded another in a drive-by shooting in Mosul. A car bomb
exploded near an Iraqi military checkpoint in Baghdad, killing one
civilian and wounding two soldiers. Police found four decapitated
heads in the Sabtiyah area north of Baqouba. The body of a security
officer was found shot in the head and chest in Diwaniyah. 72 people
killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme
Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities
committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of
biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of
Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked
a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One
attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria
gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated
in the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo
Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped
workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its
lucrative business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Military officials
from North and South Korea reached an agreement clearing the way for
the first railway journeys across their heavily fortified border for
half a century.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the
Czech Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote
relations in trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian
information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV
program that featured a Mickey Mouse look-alike urging Palestinian
children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination.
Hamas militants in Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong
resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic
domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable
audience, children. The show was broadcast as usual two days after
the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 9, In the Philippines
Ernie Tatoy (41), an aide to a gubernatorial candidate, was fatally
shot and his daughter (13) wounded, as violence in the run-up to
next week's local and congressional elections claimed its 100th
victim in four months.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Saudi authorities
beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man
over a dispute. Khadija Bint Ibrahim Moussa was the second woman to
be executed this year. The kingdom last beheaded two women in 2005.
Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Authorities said
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's
veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves
for attacks.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In northern Syria 7
people were killed and 7 were wounded when a 5-story building
collapsed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI
departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians
packed converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday.
Benedict gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming
pontiff in 2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he
agreed that Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in
Mexico City should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the
response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Zimbabweans braced
for darker days after President Robert Mugabe's government announced
20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, A Zimbabwean court
authorized the extradition of Briton Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea
on coup plot charges, sweeping aside concerns that he might face
torture or invalid justice there.
(AFP, 5/9/07)

2008 May 9, Oil closed at a
record high with light, sweet crude settling at $125.96 per barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.B4)
2008 May 9, In eastern
Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed several militants during an
operation in Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians
were among those killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, The government of
Central African Republic (CAR), plagued by unrest since 2005, and
the country's main rebel group signed a ceasefire and peace accord
to take effect immediately.
(AFP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A newly disclosed
set of documents that Colombia's government says were recovered on
March 1 from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan
officials tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army. The
price of crude rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time as
investors questioned whether a Wall Street Journal report regarding
the documents could lead to a confrontation between Washington and
Venezuela.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Dominica
legislators balked at deciding who can marry whom. Chief Charles
Williams, the leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in
the eastern Caribbean, recently suggested outlawing marriage to
outsiders to save a dwindling indigenous population.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5
armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend,
Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars,
driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid
out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a
sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded
murder. At the small police post in Balla, a constable later
admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the
village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially
Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah
gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector
from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's
worst sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired
by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm
near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in
retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta
seized UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of
last week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend
further help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and
37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured
two other police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, South African
President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart
Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors
reported a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid
group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in
rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Sri
Lanka a bomb hidden in a package exploded in a cafe in the town of
Ampara, killing 11 people on the eve local elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey
a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air
strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish
fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the
military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla
was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)

2009 May 9, Federal drug
enforcement agents began seizing about 351 pounds of meth from two
houses in Duluth, in suburban Atlanta. The 2-day operation included
the arrest of four Mexican nationals, three of whom were in the US
illegally. It was the biggest seizure of Mexican crystal
methamphetamine ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 9, Chuck Daly
(b.1930), NBA basketball coach, died in Florida. He coached the
Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning
back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Afghanistan 2
police died in a roadside blast in Zabul province.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan
joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine
flu. New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to
confirm cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported
the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced
its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening
of primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match
the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, amid
increasing complaints over criminality in the government.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed 9 people in three separate attacks in the western state of
Michoacan. 4 horses and a bull were also killed in one of the
attacks. The bodies of 4 US citizens (19-23) were found strangled,
beaten and stabbed in a van in Tijuana, two days after they
reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the
Mexican clubs.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 9, Pakistani civilians
cowered in hospital beds and refugees looted UN supplies, all of
them desperate for relief from the fighting that has engulfed a
northwestern valley as troops and warplanes struggled to drive out
Taliban militants. The army said it killed as many as 55 more
Taliban fighters in Swat. A suspected US missile strike killed nine
people, mostly foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, It was reported
that Peru’s police over the last two months have seized some $40
million in near perfect replicas of American dollar bills in $20,
$50 and $100 denominations. Most of the fake bills were sent to
Ecuador and Panama, which used the greenback as their national
currency.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.40)
2009 May 9, In South Africa
Jacob Zuma became president, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of
all South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to
reach the nation's highest office.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Human Rights Watch
accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking hospitals in the
northern war zone with indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks
that have killed scores of people, a charge the military denied. Sri
Lankan police arrested three journalists for London-based Channel 4
television news on charges of tarnishing the image of government
security forces.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, UN officials said a
UN-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been
expanded beyond the original "dirty dozen" to include nine more
substances that are used in pesticides, flame retardants and other
products.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Venezuela police
and soldiers discovered 4,370 pounds (1,983 kilograms) of cocaine
during a raid on a ranch in central Miranda state. A Colombian and
two Venezuelans were detained.
(AP, 5/11/09)

2010 May 9, US Attorney General
Eric Holder said Washington had evidence that Pakistani Taliban were
behind a failed car bomb attack in the heart of New York City.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Lena Horne
(b.1917), jazz singer and actress, died in NYC at age 92. She was
known for her plaintive signature song "Stormy Weather" and for her
triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white
audiences but not socialize with them. In 1942's "Panama Hattie,"
her first movie with MGM, she sang Cole Porter's "Just One of Those
Things," winning critical acclaim.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Afghanistan an
insurgent rocket, apparently fired at a NATO convoy, missed its
target and hit a civilian vehicle in southern Helmand province
killing four civilians. A NATO service members died in an insurgent
attack in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, Australia's
government said 5 people are feared dead and 59 people were rescued
from a disabled boat carrying suspected asylum-seekers in the Indian
Ocean.
(Reuters, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, European Union
leaders agreed to provide $572 billion in new loans and $78 billion
under an existing lending program to contain its spreading
government debt crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency
apart and derailing the global economic recovery. An IMF
contribution of $325 million would raise the amount to over $975
million. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) fund was
conjured up as a backstop for Eurozone countries should they shut
out of bond markets. On Sep 20 it was given a AAA grade by the three
major ratings agencies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Financial_Stability_Facility)(AP,
5/10/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)(SFC, 5/11/10, p.D2)(Econ, 9/25/10,
p.83)
2010 May 9, A plume of volcanic
ash snaked its way through southern France, Switzerland, Italy and
Germany, shutting down airports and disrupting flights across
Europe.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Germany Angela
Merkel's center-right coalition lost control of Germany's most
populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in an election that also
erased its majority in the upper house of parliament, making the
country harder to run. The defeat followed a stumbling start for
Merkel's new national coalition government, which took power in
October.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an
earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North
Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking
out power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened what is being dubbed as the Middle East's
biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company
Saipa.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five
Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of
armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Iran Newsweek
reporter Maziar Bahari was sentenced in absentia to more than 13
years in prison and 74 lashes, raising concerns about a new
government crackdown ahead of the anniversary of disputed
presidential elections.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 9, The second round of
Lebanon's municipal elections kicked off in Beirut and the Bekaa
region, respectively dominated by PM Saad Hariri and the Shiite
party Hezbollah.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Nepal riot
police clashed with thousands of communists demonstrating outside
the government's main offices in Katmandu, injuring several
protesters and police officers.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Pakistan 10
people were killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. 9 of
the 10 were said to be militants.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians
announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel
after a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick
transition to face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest
issues. Israeli-Arab leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies
that produce Jewish settlement-made products, following Palestinian
Authority Pres. Abbas’ call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)

2011 May 9, Former California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver announced their
separation, cleaving a sometimes-turbulent 25-year relationship. On
May 17 Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he had fathered a child with
a member of his household staff over a decade ago.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In New York two
small planes collided near New Hampton killing two people. Both
planes were registered to men from New Jersey.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A6)
2011 May 9, Abu Dhabi donated
US$32 million dollars to Queensland to help protect the Australian
state from cyclones in the wake of a monster storm that hit in
February.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO service members were killed by roadside bombs.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia
organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities
have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia
for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against
publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, An Austrian court
approved the extradition of former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader to his
homeland where he is suspected of corruption while in office.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Lidia Gueiler
(b.1921), former Bolivian president and the second woman to lead a
Latin American nation, died. She served as president of Bolivia when
she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup
d'etats.
(AP,
5/10/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Gueiler_Tejada)
2011 May 9, In Canada the
provincial government of Manitoba said breaking dikes on the flooded
Assiniboine River on May 11 at a spot west of Winnipeg will unleash
a torrent of water that will swamp 225 square km of land. Manitoba
pushed back the timing of the planned break to May 12 afternoon as
residents scrambled to protect themselves from a deliberate flood of
a vast area of farmland.
(Reuters, 5/10/11)(Reuters, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, A Chilean
government commission approved a $7 billion project to dam, two
rivers for electrification, despite much opposition. 5 dams were
approved on the Baker and Pascua rivers in Aysen, southern
Patagonia.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A4)
2011 May 9, Colombia extradited
Walid Makled to Venezuela to face drug smuggling and murder charges.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, Egyptian
authorities detained 23 more people in connection with recent
clashes between Muslims and Christians, including two people
suspected of sparking riots over the weekend that left a Cairo
church torched and 13 people dead. Hundreds of Christians continued
their sit-in outside Egypt's state TV building, saying they fear an
Islamic state is in the making.
(AP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, The Gambian high
court granted an application allowing the government to seize
millions of dollars worth of Libyan assets "until a government
recognized by the United Nations is in place in Libya."
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Guatemalan court
acquitted former president Alfonso Portillo on charges of embezzling
$15 million in defense funds during his 2000-2004 term of office. He
remained in prison facing an extradition request from the United
States, on charges of embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, India's top court
suspended a ruling that divided between Hindus and Muslims the Babri
Mosque holy site in northern India that had been the cause of deadly
riots.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of
Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic
faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down
its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Libya NATO
planes pounded government weapons depots southeast of the town of
Zintan, in a sign of widening conflict in the Western Mountains
region as rebels battled to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. Rebels were
reported to have found a way to access badly needed cash, selling
oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in US dollars.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Malaysian police
said they have arrested Abdul Majid Kunji Mohamad, a Singaporean
businessman, suspected of channeling funds to southern Philippine
militants.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Mexican public
defenders said a group of Central American migrants recently rescued
from kidnappers in northern Mexico has accused immigration agents of
pulling them from a bus and handing them over to criminal gangs. In
April the federal government had announced the arrest of six
immigration agents in Tamaulipas for "federal crimes."
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, Pakistan met US
demands for an inquiry into how Osama bin Laden lived for years
under the noses of its military but refused to be blamed alone for
Al-Qaeda or its mastermind. Pakistan’s spy agency gave the name of
the CIA station chief to the Nation, a conservative daily newspaper.
(AFP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A3)
2011 May 9, The Palestinian
Authority said it had not been able to pay salaries for the first
time since 2007 because of Israel's decision to halt the transfer of
funds it collects on its behalf.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Philippine
anti-graft court approved a much-criticized plea bargain deal
between prosecutors and former Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, who was
accused of plunder. Garcia had pleaded guilty to the lesser charges
of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering. He was released
on bail in December pending sentencing on the lesser charges.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, It was reported
that Samoa plans to leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day and
putting a new kink in the Pacific's jagged international date line
so that it can be on the same weekday as Australia, New Zealand and
eastern Asia.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Serbia’s High Court
ruled that folksinger Svetlana Raznatovic known as Ceca will spend
one year under house arrest in exchange for a euro1.5-million
($2.2-million) fine. Raznatovic pleaded guilty on charges that she
embezzled about euro4 million in the sale of 10 football players to
foreign clubs from a Belgrade team she managed in the early 2000s.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Southern Sudan
46 militia were killed in fighting in Kuei Koi. Most of the
dead killed over the last 2 days were rebels loyal to Peter Gadet, a
formerly high-ranking army officer who launched his own rebel group.
(AP, 5/11/11)(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, Syrian security
forces arrested hundreds of activists and anti-government protesters
in house-to-house raids across the country, part of an escalating
government crackdown aimed at stamping out the nationwide revolt
engulfing the country.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Thailand's PM
Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he is dissolving the lower house of
Parliament to hold early elections July 3, setting off a political
battle that could inflame tensions in the divided nation.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Turkey a
five-day UN-backed conference of the 48-member "least-developed
countries" opened to address the problems of the world's poorest
countries. The last such conference was hosted by the EU in Brussels
in 2001. France hosted the two previous ones in 1990 and 1981.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Uganda hundreds
of women demonstrated in Kampala over high food prices and brutal
tactics employed by police during recent political rallies.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Yemeni security
forces opened fire on demonstrators and launched rocket-propelled
grenades at an office building as they cracked down on a protest in
the flashpoint city of Taiz in the country's south. Three people
were reported killed.
(AP, 5/9/11)

2012 May 9, President Barack
Obama announced his support for gay marriage and boosted the hopes
of gay rights groups around the world. Opponents denounced his
switch as a shameless appeal for votes.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, The United States
opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the
first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese
state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Bed Bath and Beyond
announced a cash deal to buy Cost Plus for $554 million.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.D1)
2012 May 9, Argentina's senate
overwhelmingly approved a "dignified death" law giving terminally
ill patients and their families more power to make end-of-life
decisions. The law passed by a vote of 55 to zero, with 17 senators
declaring themselves absent. It passed the lower house last year.
(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Argentina’s senate
passed a gender identity law giving people the freedom to change
their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want
to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical
procedures beforehand.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, In Australia 27
protected Little Penguins were found mauled in the Phillip Island
Nature Park in Victoria state, a popular tourist attraction. The
penguins were believed killed by a dog or a pack of dogs, ironically
at Cat Bay.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth unveiled the government’s agenda in her annual Queen‘s
Speech.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)
2012 May 9, A group of London
investment bankers won their High Court battle to receive 50 million
euros ($65 million) in unpaid bonuses. The bankers claimed that
Commerzbank had reneged on a deal to pay bonuses promised to them by
Dresdner before the takeover in 2008.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British police in
Newcastle arrested a suspected spokesman (17) for Team Poison, a
hacking group that has claimed responsibility for a series of
high-profile cyber-attacks.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Nine men in
northwest England were sentenced to jail terms for luring girls as
young as 13 into sexual encounters using alcohol and drugs. The men,
aged between 22 and 59, were all of Pakistani or Afghan origin.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline said it has gone hostile over its $2.6 billion (2.0
billion-euro) takeover bid for US research partner Human Genome
Sciences Inc.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In CongoDRC the
Nord-Kivu governor's office said a 25-ton arms cache has been found
on the farm of Bosco Ntaganda, the leader and wanted war criminal of
a band of Congolese army mutineers. The farm is located in Masisi,"
part of Nord-Kivu province, where clashes took place between April
29 and May 4.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In India the number
of pilots involved in a wildcat strike at national carrier Air India
rose to 150, as the walkout forced the cancellation of more
international flights.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Indonesia a
Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a volcano south of Jakarta
during a demonstration flight. All 45 people on board were feared
dead. The Superjet, Russia's first new model of passenger jet since
the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, was in Indonesia as
part of a 6-nation tour of Asia aimed at drumming up new customers.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Japan's government
approved a plan to take a controlling stake in the operator of the
Fukushima nuclear plant, effectively nationalizing one of the
world's largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12
billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the
vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Mauritania
thousands opposition activists staged a march and sit-down protest
in Nouakchott, calling for former coup leader Pres. Mohamed Ould
Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Mexican police
found 18 dismembered bodies inside 2 vans near the Lake Chapala
enclave of Ajijic, just south of Guadalajara.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)Reuters, 6/17/12)
2012 May 9, In northeast
Nigeria at least two people were killed in an attack on a market in
Maiduguri. The military blamed the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Palestinian
Airlines resumed operations, starting with biweekly flights between
El-Arish and Marka Airbase in the Jordanian capital of Amman. The
new route means Gazans no longer have to travel to Cairo, some 350
km (215 miles) from their territory, to board planes.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 9, In the southern
Philippines an inferno at a three-story clothing store killed 17
employees, all women who were sleeping on the top floor in downtown
Butuan city.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Serbia
pro-European Union Democrats and Socialists reached an agreement to
form a new coalition government, after an election that indicated
the bloc has kept its luster in the Balkans despite the eurozone
crisis.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, South African
authorities seized assets worth almost $7 million from game farm
owner Dawie Groenewald and veterinary surgeons, Karel Toet and Manie
Du Plessis, accused of rhino poaching. They were charged with 1,872
counts of racketeering.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Spain’s government
nationalized Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), parent of Bankia,
the largest property lender in the country.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.79)
2012 May 9, Sudan offered
African tribesmen in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei its
citizenship in an effort to woo them to the north. Abyei's fate was
left unresolved when South Sudan split from Sudan. Sudanese armed
forces said they have repulsed an attack by Darfur rebels in Gereida
(Girayda). 9 soldiers and an unknown number of rebels were reported
killed.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Syria bullets
flying across the Syrian border into Lebanon killed a 70-year-old
woman and wounded her daughter. A roadside bomb struck a Syrian
military truck, wounding 6 soldiers just seconds after a convoy
carrying the head of the UN observer mission passed by.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Yemen a girl
(13) was raped as she headed to a bakery. She was kidnapped and
taken into a car whose owner has been identified. She was brutally
raped by the suspects who then deformed her face using sharp tools.
Protesters later called for the arrest of 7 escaped suspects.
(AFP, 5/19/12)

2013 May 9, Federal prosecutors
in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment accusing Lajud-Pena and 7 other
New York suspects of withdrawing $2.8 million in cash from hacked
accounts in less than a day. The accused ringleader in the US cell,
Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, was reportedly killed in the Dominican
Republic late last month. US federal prosecutors said a worldwide
gang of criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking
their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining
cash machines around the globe. There were two separate attacks, one
in December that reaped $5 million worldwide and one in February
that snared about $40 million in 10 hours with about 36,000
transactions.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In southern
California Pamela Marie Devitt (63) was fatally mauled by a pack of
pit bulls while walking near her home near Palmdale. Authorities
were still searching for the dogs as darkness fell. On May 30 Alex
Jackson (29), the owner of the dogs, was charged with murder. On Oct
4, 2014, Jackson was sentenced to 15 years to life. The dogs had
guarded his pot-growing operation.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A5)(SFC,
5/31/13, p.A12)(SFC, 10/5/14, p.A5)
2013 May 9, In Ohio an amber
alert was issued for Blain (14) and Blake Romes (17) of Ottawa.
Michael Fay (17) told authorities where the bodies of the two
brothers could be found. Murder charges against Fay were announced
on May 17.
(SFC, 5/18/13, p.A6)
2013 May 9, In Afghanistan
unidentified kidnappers abducted 11 Afghans working in a
UN-affiliated landmine clearing program in Nangarhar province.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 May 9, A Bangladesh
tribunal sentenced the deputy head of Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad
Kamaruzzaman, to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971
war for independence.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.55)
2013 May 9, British
yacht-racing champion Andrew "Bart" Simpson, who won a gold medal at
the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, was killed when his vessel
capsized in SF Bay during training for the America's Cup.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, A federal jury in
Texas found Jose Trevino Morales (46) guilty of conspiracy to commit
money laundering. His older brothers were said to be leaders of the
Zetas, a Nuevo Leon based criminal group that has become the largest
in Mexico.
(SFC, 5/9/13, p.A8)
2013 May 9, It was reported
that 460 Vietnamese men, women and children have fled to Australian
shores so far this year.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Brazil’s Sao Paulo
state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin unveiled a program that will provide
about $650 per month in subsidies for the rehabilitation of addicts
who voluntarily enroll in the rehab program.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials
said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential
violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to
7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 9, Ratings agency
Standard & Poor's pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper
into junk status to CCC+ and C, from B- and B, citing "continued
pressure" on foreign reserves.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Egypt American
national Christopher Stone was attacked and stabbed outside the US
Embassy in Cairo. Police arrested the attacker.
(AP, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Amnesty Int’l. said
Eritrea's government has jailed about 10,000 dissidents without
charge or trial over the years and described the Horn of Africa
nation as one of the world's most repressive states. Among those
behind bars are 187 people detained since January.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iran's defense
minister said Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do
surveillance and fire on enemy targets. The Fars news agency quoted
Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft — dubbed Epic, or
Hemaseh in Farsi — can fly at high altitudes.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key
element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in
Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Northern Ireland
officials said they hope to tear down the so-called “peace lines,"
walls of brick steel and barbed wire that have divided Irish
Catholic and British Protestant neighborhoods going back to 1970,
within a decade.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, In northern Italy
Ottavio Missoni (b.1921), the patriarch of the iconic fashion brand
of zigzag-patterned knitwear, died.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Mexico Malcolm
Shabazz (28), grandson of Malcolm X, was beaten to death in Mexico
City during a dispute over a $1200 bar bill. Prosecutors soon
arrested two men in connection with the death of Shabazz.
(SSFC, 5/12/13, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 9, Nine young
defectors from North Korea, ages 15-23, entered Laos through China.
The alleged orphans were caught by Laotian authorities on May 16 and
soon returned to North Korea. On May 31 the UN human rights chief
criticized China and Laos for their actions.
(SFC, 6/1/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked an election rally in the southern Punjab province and
abducted Ali Haider Gilani, the son of ex-premier Yousuf Raza
Gilani. Two guards were killed. A bomb blew up at an election office
of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in the city of Mir Ali in the North
Waziristan tribal area. One person was killed and six others
wounded.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Syrian warplanes
pounded rebel targets in two northern provinces as President Bashar
Assad's troops pushed on with an offensive to reclaim more territory
from the opposition.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Taiwanese fisherman
Hung Shih-cheng (65) was shot dead by Philippine coast guard sailors
in disputed waters. On May 15 Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III
apologized to Taiwan for the shooting.
(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A2)(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Yemen’s President
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi warned that the al-Qaida branch in the
country was expanding and using assassinations and abductions of
foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.
(AP, 5/9/13)

2014 May 9, President Barack
Obama announced executive orders to increase the use of solar
panels, boost energy efficiency in federal buildings and train more
people to work in the renewable energy field.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The US Treasury
Department said it has reached an information-sharing agreement with
Hong Kong under a new law meant to combat offshore tax dodging by
Americans.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, A US judge struck
down Arkansas’s 2004 amendment defining marriage as between a man
and a woman as unconstitutional. On May 15 Judge Chris Piazza
extended his ruling to include all state laws preventing gay couples
from marrying. On May 16 the state Supreme Court granted a request
to suspend Piazza’s decisions.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A10)(SFC, 5/17/14, p.A5)
2014 May 9, In California a
judge issued a permanent injunction against two Los Angeles
merchants and fined them over $26 million after investigators found
over 10,000 counterfeit items at their now defunct T.J. Accessories
store.
(SFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, Police in Davis,
Ca., arrested Rev. Hector Coria (45) for allegedly engaging in a
sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
(SFC, 5/12/14, p.A6)
2014 May 9, In Colorado a crude
oil train derailed spilling some 6,500 gallons of oil near LaSalle.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, The Hybrid Remotely
Operated Vehicle Nereus, operated by the Massachusetts-based Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, was lost during its dive to the
Kermadec Trench off the coast of New Zealand. It was being operated
as part of the Hadal Ecosystems Studies (HADES) Program funded by
the US National Science Foundation.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In Virginia a hot
air balloon carrying three people crashed and burned after it hit a
power line and burst into flames.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, In western
Afghanistan More than 100 Taliban fighters staged a large-scale
attack on a remote police checkpoint, wounding 11 police officers in
Farah province.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Bosnia reopened the
reconstructed National Library in Sarajevo. It had been destroyed by
Serb shelling in 1992.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, British experts
arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by
Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort
began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Cambodian
authorities intercepted 3 tons of illegal ivory that was stashed in
shipping containers, its largest such seizure.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Central African
Republic rebel Col. Mahamat Deya said a gathering of Muslim fighters
has chosen Gen. Joseph Zindeko as the new leader of Seleka.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, Dominican Republic
authorities said that they have arrested a citizen of Pakistan and
six others accused of running a sophisticated migrant smuggling
operation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Germany SLM
Solutions, a pioneer in making selective laser melting equipment,
i.e. 3D printers, used in factories, began trading on the Frankfurt
stock exchange. Here additive manufacturing was used to describe one
aspect of 3D printing.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.56)
2014 May 9, In Iraq army
shelling killed 8 civilians and 3 gunmen in the militant-held city
of Fallujah.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Italy plumber
Riccardo Viti (55) confessed to the recent slaying of a prostitute
whose body was tied, crucifixion-style, to metal bars in the
countryside near Florence. His DNA was being compared to samples
from 10 other similar cases.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Lebanon braced for
a summer drought, after a record dry winter exacerbated by a massive
influx of Syrian refugees and longstanding water management
problems.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Mexico 5 gunmen
and one soldier were killed in gunbattles in Reynosa, a city across
the border from McAllen, Texas. Galindo Mellado Cruz was one of the
5 gunmen who died in the shootout that also killed a Mexican
soldier. Cruz was one of the 30 ex-special forces soldiers who
created the Zetas gang to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel
before splitting off in a bloody breakup with its former ally.
(AP, 5/9/14)(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In New Zealand
Malaysian diplomat Mohammed Rizalman Bin Ismail followed a
21-year-old woman, later identified as Tania Billingsley (21) and
assaulted her. New Zealand charged the man with assault and attempt
to rape, but Malaysia claimed diplomatic immunity and he returned
home on May 22. On July 2 Malaysia's foreign ministry said that
Muhammad Rizalman would return to New Zealand "to assist in the
investigation for the charges".
(AP, 6/30/14)(AP, 7/1/14)(AFP, 7/2/14)(AP,
7/9/14)
2014 May 9, In northeastern
Nigeria Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown
number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired
police officer.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In southern
Pakistan a magnitude 5 earthquake rattled several towns in before
dawn, killing one person and injuring 70.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Taliban head
Maulana Fazlullah moved against Khan "Sajna" Said after weeks of
bloody infighting in the powerful Mehsud tribe that supplies the
bulk of the Pakistani Taliban fighters.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Russia’s President
Putin watched as about 11,000 Russian troops proudly marched across
Red Square in celebration of Victory Day. He then flew to Crimea and
extolled its return to Russia before tens of thousands during his
first trip there since its annexation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Saudi Arabia's
health ministry said the death toll from MERS has risen by five to
126 fatalities since the mystery respiratory virus first appeared in
the kingdom in 2012.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South African
police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse
demonstrators who burned tires and barricaded roads in the Alexandra
township north of Johannesburg in post-election unrest.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, South Korean police
arrested Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. His
company owns the Sewol ferry that sank and left more than 300 people
dead or missing, and authorities worried he may destroy evidence.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet rebel
leader Riek Machar under growing international pressure for an end
to ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide. Kiir and
Machar, a former vice president, met, shook hands and prayed
together, and agreed to order a halt to fighting within 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Thai police fired
tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of protesters
trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest
indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country's
tense political crisis.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Ukraine at least
3 people were killed in a clash between government forces and rebels
in the eastern city of Mariupol. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said
in a statement that 20 "terrorists" and one police officer were
killed in fighting that erupted when 60 gunmen tried to capture the
Mariupol police station.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The UN Security
Council ordered sanctions against three Central African Republic
leaders, including former president Francois Bozize. The leader of
the anti-Balaka militia Levy Yakete and the Seleka militia's number
two Nourredine Adam were also targeted.
(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Yemen 4 soldiers
were killed and three wounded in an ambush by suspected al Qaeda
fighters in the central province of al-Bayda. Defense minister
Muhammad Nasir Ahmad and a number of senior security officials were
attacked by gunmen while travelling in their vehicles in Shabwa
province. No one was killed or injured. Suspected Al-Qaeda militants
attacked the presidential palace in Sanaa, killing 5 guards and
triggering a fierce gunfight.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)

2015 May 9, In Mississippi
police officers Benjamin Deen (34) and Liquori Tate (25) were shot
and taken to a hospital where they were confirmed dead. Brothers
Curtis Banks (26) and Marvin Banks (29) were arrested the next day
over the killing. Joanie Calloway (22) was also charged with two
counts of capital murder. A fourth man, identified as Cornelius
Clark, was also arrested in connection with the case and booked on
an obstruction of justice charge. Three more people were soon
arrested in the case.
(AFP, 5/10/15)(Reuters, 5/11/15)(SSFC, 5/17/15,
p.A8)
2015 May 9, In New York state a
transformer fire at the Indian Point nuclear power plant caused oil
to leak into the Hudson River and forced an automatic shutdown of
the plant.
(SFC, 5/11/15, p.A6)
2015 May 9, Afghan officials
said the bodies of 18 foreigners have been retrieved from the
battlefield around Kunduz city, found to be from Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Chechnya.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Burundi's leading
opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, registered to run in a coming
presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a
third term has sparked two weeks of protests. The government ordered
"insurgents" to end weeks of demonstrations against President Pierre
Nkurunziza's third term bid and ordered all barricades to be removed
within 48 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Colombia’s Pres.
Juan Manuel Santos said he is halting the use of an herbicide that
has been a key part of US-financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops
following a WHO decision to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen.
(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.A3)
2015 May 9, Two Colombian
soldiers were killed in clashes with leftist ELN rebels in the
northeastern town of Cubara. The soldiers were trying to dismantle
oil infrastructure that the ELN is building in the area.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, An Egyptian court
sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three
years in jail without parole in the retrial of a corruption case. 3
policemen and a retired officer were shot dead by gunmen in separate
incidents in the Sinai peninsula.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In France crowds of
protesters, many dressed in Jamaican colors, made their way through
the streets of Paris from the Place de la Republique to Bastille
calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana use.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In central India
Maoist rebels killed one villager and released around 250 others
they had held for a day to stop the construction of a bridge.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq a car bomb
blast targeting Shiite pilgrims on an annual march to a Baghdad
shrine killed at least 7 people and wounded 20. Some 50 inmates and
12 police were killed and 40 inmates escaped in a bloody prison
break in Khalis. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed
responsibility for both events.
(AFP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq and Syria
the United States and its allies conducted 28 air strikes against
Islamic State with 15 in Syria and 13 in Iraq in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Italy the Venice
Biennale contemporary art fair opened for a seven-month run. It was
curated by Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian art critic and museum director.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In northern
Macedonia explosions and heavy gunfire rocked a suburb of Kumanovo
as police moved against what authorities described as an "armed
group", heightening fears of instability in the ex-Yugoslav
republic. 8 police and 14 members a group of ethnic Albanian
veterans of insurgencies in ex-Yugoslavia were killed in a day-long
gun battle. Over 30 people were arrested.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Russia thousands
of troops marched across Moscow's Red Square and tanks rumbled
through streets to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi
Germany, an event boycotted by Western leaders over Russia's role in
the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, The Saudi-led
coalition struck northern provinces of Yemen in a third consecutive
night of heavy air strikes. More than 100 air strikes hit areas of
Saada and Hajjah provinces, including the districts of Haradh, Maidi
and Bakil al-Mir.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In South Sudan
Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red
Cross evacuated their staff from the rebel-held town of Leer in the
south of Unity State fearing clashes between the rebels and
government troops.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In southwestern
Spain a military transport plane crashed near Seville airport,
killing 4 of six Airbus crew members. The Airbus A400M military
transport plane had been ordered by Turkey.
(AP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)(SSFC, 5/10/15,
p.A3)
2015 May 9, In Switzerland a
gunman (36) killed 3 relatives and a neighbor in a late-night
rampage in in Wuerenlingen before turning his weapon on himself.
(Reuters, 5/10/15)(SFC, 5/11/15,
p.A2)
2015 May 9, Turkish former
president Kenan Evren (97), convicted last year for his key role in
the country's bloody 1980 coup, died in Ankara.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, The UN World Health
Organization (WHO) declared Liberia Ebola-free, hailing the
"monumental" achievement in the west African country where the virus
has killed more than 4,700 people.
(AFP, 5/9/15)

2015 May 9-2015 May 14, In
Mexico at least 16 people disappeared during a takeover by
vigilantes allegedly linked to a drug gang in Chilapa, Guerrero
state. On May 20 federal prosecutors said detectives and experts
were being sent to look for the victims.
(AP, 5/21/15)

2016 May 9, The US Justice
Dept. sued North Carolina over the state’s new bathroom law
requiring transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the
gender on their birth certificates.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, The Chicago Tribune
reported that 8 people were killed over Mother’s Day weekend with at
least 1,225 people shot in the city this year.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, In Kansas City,
Kan., a police detective was fatally shot while helping respond to a
report of a suspicious person near a racetrack. Parolee Curtis Ayers
(28) was shot and taken into custody after trying to carjack a
woman’s vehicle following a police chase.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, An Australian law
firm filed a compensation claim against Russia and President
Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of
families of victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down
over Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The application names the Russian
Federation and Putin as respondents and seeks $10 million in
compensation per passenger.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, Austrian Chancellor
Werner Faymann resigned, citing lack of support for his policies
within his own Social Democratic party.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Belgium called up
the military to assist in prisons where guards have been on strike
for two weeks over what they say is dangerously low staffing due to
budget cuts.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Brazil acting
Speaker Waldir Maranhao annulled last month’s vote on impeaching
Pres. Dilma Rousseff.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A5)
2016 May 9, In Cambodia two
foreigners were among eight people arrested by police on in Phnom
Penh for protesting the jailing of a group of human rights workers
and an election official on what demonstrators said were
politically-motivated charges.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The Republic of
Congo called on the EU to recall its ambassador to Brazzaville over
EU criticism of President Denis Sassou Nguesso's controversial
re-election in March. In its response on May 17, Brussels expressed
its unwavering support for EU representative Saskia de Lang.
(AFP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, In Egypt a fire in
downtown Cairo engulfed a hotel and several nearby buildings killing
at least 3 people.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, Greek lawmakers
passed unpopular pension and tax reforms that a European official
said marked a major advance in negotiations towards unlocking more
rescue funds from the country's creditors.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Indonesia’s VP
Jusuf Kalla spoke before the Int’l. Summit of the Moderate Islamic
Leaders meeting in Jakarta and called on Islamic leaders to spread
messages a tolerant Islam to curb extremism.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, In Iraq an evening
suicide bombing in a commercial Shiite neighborhood of Baqouba
killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, Japanese artist
Megumi Igarashi (44), who makes objects shaped like her vagina, was
convicted after a high-profile obscenity trial. The Tokyo District
Court slapped her with a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine. The court
fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals but said her
figurines, decorated with fake fur and glitter, could be considered
"pop art".
(AFP, 5/9/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Nigeria 3
soldiers guarding an oil installation were shot and killed when they
came under fierce attack. The Niger Avengers claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, The Philippines
held presidential elections. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won
the presidential election, defeating his four main rivals by a large
margin. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of late dictator Ferdinand
Marcos, led in the vice presidential race.
(AP, 5/9/16)(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, In the Philippines
Geraldine Roman won the congressional race in the first
district of northern Bataan province becoming the country’s first
transgender politician.
(AP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 9, Rwanda said at
least 49 people have been killed by landslides in the country's
north following heavy rains over the weekend.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Somalia Islamic
jihadists killed 3 police officers in a bomb and gun attack on a
police station in Mogadishu. A suicide car bomber and a gunman also
died as well as two civilians.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The UN World Food
Program said up to 5.3 million people in South Sudan may face a
severe food shortages during this year's lean season, nearly double
the number in the first three months of the year.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Syria multiple
air raids struck rebel-held areas while shelling hit
government-controlled parts of Aleppo, hours before a five-day
cease-fire was to expire.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Thailand media
reported that a top Thai medical college has caught students using
spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, A Turkish soldier
was killed in clashes in Nusaybin, located at the Syrian border and
under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March, as fighting
continued in both Nusaybin and Sirnak throughout the day.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)

2017 May 9, President Donald
Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The abrupt firing threw into
question the future of the FBI's investigation into the Trump
campaign's possible connections to Russia and immediately raised
suspicions of an underhanded effort to stymie a probe that has
shadowed the administration from the outset.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, The Trump
administration said it will arm Syria’s Kurdish fighters “as
necessary" to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, The US Embassy in
Kenya said it has suspended approximately $21 million in assistance
to Kenya's ministry of health because of concerns about corruption.
Kenya is ranked 145 out of 176 countries in Transparency
International's index of the world's most corrupt countries.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Florida Spirit
Airlines cancelled nine flights blaming the decision on pilots’
failure to show up at Fort Lauderdale.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, In Washington state
an underground tunnel containing radioactive waste collapsed at the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Officials detected no release of
radiation and no workers were injured.
(SFC, 5/11/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, Bulgarian
prosecutors charged former Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov with
mismanagement that led to state losses of about 500 million levs
($278 million) related to signing contracts in breach of public
procurement rules. Mitov said he was surprised with the charges and
noted that Bulgarian ministries have been using similar practices
for years.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the city
of Montreal extended its state of emergency as 171 municipalities
fought flooding.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the
Liberals of British Columbia, led by Christy Clark, won their fifth
straight election, but fell short of a majority.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.32)
2017 May 9, China released
prominent human rights lawyers Xie Yang and Li Heping. Both were
detained nearly two years ago and released after they allegedly
confessed in court to collaborating with foreign organizations and
media to smear and subvert Communist Party rule.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, Qian Qichen (90),
former Chinese vice premier and top diplomat, died in Beijing. He
oversaw the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In eastern China
eleven young children, five South Korean and six Chinese, were
killed along with their driver when their bus crashed and burst in
to flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Democratic Republic
of Congo President Joseph Kabila named a new transitional
government, defying opponents who rejected the cabinet, saying it
violated a previous agreement.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In the French Alps
an avalanche swept away a group of cross-country skiers, killing
three people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Indonesia Basuki
Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta's Christian governor, was sentenced to two
years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics
fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism
in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Iraq corpses of
Islamic State militants (IS) littered the streets of a district in
Mosul as US-backed Iraqi forces chipped away at the last remaining
handful of districts under the jihadists' control. A spokesman for
the Emergency Response Division said 250 Islamic State members had
been killed in Harmat district over the past 5 days.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Kashmiri militants
kidnapped an Indian army officer (23) who was visiting home in the
disputed Himalayan region. His bullet-riddled body was recovered the
next morning.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, More than 880
Palestinian prisoners held by Israel remained on a hunger strike,
the 23rd day of their protest.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Libya forces
loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter said they have lost 17
fighters in their two-day push to clear central parts of Benghazi
from Islamists and their allies.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, A Dutch appeals
court ruled that Russian authorities knowingly plunged oil giant
Yukos into bankruptcy in 2006 by ordering it to pay huge tax bills,
the latest ruling in a long-running battle over the assets of a
Dutch Yukos subsidiary.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Norway’s
second-largest supermarket chain, Coop Norway, said it has launched
reverse vending machines that give customers discount coupons for
new batteries when they deposit old ones for recycling.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, In South Africa
violent protests have erupted in Johannesburg for a second day, with
police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators, who blocked roads and
burned tires, demanded housing and other government services.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, South Koreans
elected left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In in a
presidential election held after a scandal led to the impeachment of
the country's previous leader.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Spanish officials
said about 300 migrants tried to scramble across the 6-meter
(20-foot) border fence separating the North African enclave of
Melilla from Morocco, with many throwing stones and other objects at
police.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Switzerland
Europe’s top physics lab CERN launched Linac 4, its newest particle
accelerator, billed as a key step towards future experiments that
could unlock the universe's greatest mysteries.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Syrian government
forces and US-backed opposition fighters clashed in a remote desert
area near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. About 7,400 troops from
more than 20 nations were said to be participating. Syrian
government warplanes struck rebel outposts near the Jordanian
border.
(AP, 5/9/17)(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Syria warplanes
late today, thought to belong to the US-led military coalition
against Islamic State, killed at least 11 people, including four
children, in al-Salihiya village north of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In southern
Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state were
suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack outside a supermarket in
the city of Pattani that wounded 60 people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said thirty-four people have died in Yemen of
cholera-related causes and more than 2,000 have been taken ill, and
warned that the outbreak could spiral out of control.
(AFP, 5/9/17)